Last night, in a coup by modernising Conservative MPs that support the Prime Minister, Mr Bone lost his place on the influential 1922 committee of backbench Conservative MPs. The committee is responsible for organising the election of the leader of the Conservative party and holds votes of no confidence in the leader. In 2003, a motion of no confidence led to the resignation of the Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.

Mr Bone was also ejected from the cross-party Commons Backbench Business Committee. The committee holds considerable weight due to its power to schedule controversial votes on subjects that can embarrass the Government.

Mr Bone voted against the regulations which secured equality for gays in the provision of goods and services in 2007 and was in favour of requiring a male figure before IVF treatment could be given to a woman.

In 1995, the Daily Mirror famously dubbed Mr Bone, who opposed minimum wage regulations, the “meanest boss” in the country for paying a 17-year-old 87p an hour.

The MP said he would not have been able to hire her had a minimum wage law been in place and predicted at the time that such a rule would leave “hundreds of thousands” of people “condemned to the dole queue”.